Burian, Al – The Long Walk Nowhere

The Long Walk Nowhere
Anybody out there ever go to high school? Yeah? Well,
did anybody out there think that high school was the most horrible
thing ever and that almost everybody who went there was a monster
and came from the worst upbringing imaginable? Maybe you
should read this book. I’ve never seen anything else by this
guy but I hope for the sake of the world that he’s either planning
on putting more stuff out or has stuff out that I’ve missed.
The mini is broken up into three parts. The first part shows
the sheer aimlessness of being a teenager, called “The Metal
Years”. The first thing I thought when I saw the pimply
faced teenager with the hair over his eyes was, of course,
“Hate” by Peter Bagge. Almost didn’t pick it up for
that reason, and I’m certainly glad that I did. This part
arguably works the best, if for no other reason than that it’s so
quiet and you can just fill in the blanks for yourself about what
this kid is thinking.

The second part is called First Girlfriend and I imagine would be
easy to relate to whether you’re male or female. Assuming that
everybody can remember your first girlfriend/boyfriend, and who the
hell can forget that? The other parts of the book allow at
least a little bit of darkness to creep in, but not this part.
It perfectly shows the confusion of this poor boy as he tries to
figure out what he’s supposed to do with a girlfriend. The
third part is mostly the author wandering his neighborhood and
thinking to himself about the town and the times gone by, as he’s 26
and completely aimless, like the rest of the world. Well, the
part that I know, anyway. It’s rare that I can unreservedly
recommend every part of a mini that is split up into a few parts,
but that is the case with this comic. It’s all good. Buy
it.